It is known that peptides useful as adhesives can be obtained from mussels of the genus Mytilus, and more specifically from the phenol gland of such mussels. A decapeptide of this type is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,585 issued Apr. 29, 1986 to Waite. Waite and his co-workers have further described this decapeptide and its use as an adhesive in Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 96:1554-1561 (1980); Science, 212:1038-1040 (1981); J. Biol. Chem., 258:2911-2915 (1983); Biochemistry, 24:5010-5014 (1985); J. Comp. Physiol B, 156:491-496 (1986); Int. J. Adhesion and Adhesives, 7:9-14 (1987). The adhesive described in these publications exhibits unusually effective adhesive properties on many surfaces, including surfaces submerged in water. However, the process described by Waite for the purification of bioadhesive protein involves disection of the gland from the mussel foot, differential extraction procedures and several chromatographic steps to yield a polyphenolic protein of high purity.
It has now been discovered that phenol gland of certain mussels of the genus Mytilus can also be made to yield an adhesive polyphenolic protein which is different from that described by Waite and which is based upon a heptapeptide repeating unit. Furthermore, it has been discovered that the extraction of this new adhesive peptide from mussels can be accomplished by a process which is simpler and less expensive than that described by Waite, thereby reducing the difficulties in scaling-up the process to a commercial level.